Beaten, dragged, tied to a pole... all for love

A Dalit boy was bound to a flagpole in a school, brutally beaten, tied to a motorcycle and dragged a few kilometers, allegedly by relatives of a girl from another caste with whom he was suspected to be having an affair, reports Satyajit Joshi.

A Dalit boy was bound to a flagpole in a school, brutally beaten, tied to a motorcycle and dragged a few kilometers, allegedly by relatives of a girl from another caste with whom he was suspected to be having an affair.

Both the boy and girl are minors.

The incident occurred at Patharwadi hamlet near Chakan, 30 km from Pune, on Friday but an offence was registered only 48 hours later. Two relatives of the girl, Balu and Raju Pathare, were arrested on Monday morning under the Atrocities Act, said the Chakan police.

Police swung into action only after the 15-year-old victim, Karan (name changed), was taken to a nearby hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad in a serious condition.

According to the complaint lodged by his brother Rajesh, some relatives of the girl, who is from the Wadar caste, turned up at their school and caught Karan, who is from the Matang caste, talking to her.

They beat up Karan and took him to Patharwadi, tied him to a motorcycle and dragged him a few kilometres. He was then taken to a cattleshed, where he was again beaten.

According to the complaint, Karan was later taken back to the school, where casteist abuse was hurled at him.

The group left after tying him to a flagpole.

Karan’s family rushed him to a nearby hospital, but doctors asked him to be shifted to a Pimpri-Chinchwad hospital after examining all his injuries.